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A review by barrettbooks
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really enjoyed this book! The world building is incredibly strong and detailed without being overwhelming. There is a very interesting magic and cultural system. It has a strictly gendered social structure, which the book is consistently calling into question with characters who do not fit into the categories allotted to them, and as the story goes on, deeper misogynistic problems are brought into focus. I love the questioning of gender roles and the culture that leads to gendered violence (by a nonbinary author!) Also I'm hopeful for explicitly queer characters in the follow up books (gay hints gay hints gAY HINTS.) I also find Tea (the MC) herself very intriguing. The book is framed as Tea telling a bard the story of her life; Tea narrated chapters (the past) alternating with bard narrated interludes (the present.) The framing really worked for me. I loved that it was able to naturally give us juicy foreshadowing some of which pays off in the next chapter and some of which I am still waiting for. But I also love how clearly it allows the reader to see Tea, how early it lets us in on the complexity of her character and her moral ambiguity. It left me not only hungry to learn how the naïve 12 yr old would turn into this powerful 17 yr old but also interested to see how the bones (heh) of her character were there all along. I'm also so invested in of and SO WORRIED about all of the side characters. There are many more things I could ramble on about loving. Some last bullet points to save words: •the rich descriptions of the clothing/food
•the evocative animal imagery
•the intrique/social drama that add layers to powerful magic/dangerous plot moments
•the class commentary
•the sibling stuff (I cannot believe I wrote a whole review without talking about how this book OPENS with child Tea accidentally raising her older brother from the dead but sometimes that's how it goes.)
Just a really great read! I'll def be continuing the series.
•the evocative animal imagery
•the intrique/social drama that add layers to powerful magic/dangerous plot moments
•the class commentary
•the sibling stuff (I cannot believe I wrote a whole review without talking about how this book OPENS with child Tea accidentally raising her older brother from the dead but sometimes that's how it goes.)
Just a really great read! I'll def be continuing the series.